My Stroke Story

A stroke, according to the Cleveland Clinic, is "a life-threatening condition that happens when part of your brain doesn’t have enough blood flow. This most commonly happens because of a blocked artery or bleeding in your brain."¹

When I suffered my first stroke in 2014, I had no idea what a stroke was or that younger people could have one. I thought it was a result of my bodybuilding and competing in competitions, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.

A surprise cardiomyopathy diagnosis

The truth was that I had dilated cardiomyopathy, which is when the heart's ventricles become larger. This stretches and weakens the heart, not allowing blood to flow efficiently.²

This was coupled with the fact that my father’s side of the family have bad hearts, and many of them have died due to complications with the heart.

My first ischemic stroke

The kind of strokes I suffered from are called ischemic strokes. This is usually caused by a blocked blood vessel in the brain that prevents cells from getting enough oxygen.¹

When I suffered my first stroke in 2014, I felt faint, lightheaded, and nauseous. I thought it was nerves because we were getting ready to go on stage. I used to compete in fitness competitions, as I mentioned above. I worked so hard in the gym — lifting weights, doing cardio, and being very strict with my diet.

The day of the competition

It got to the day of the show, and my group was up next. I thought I was feeling lightheaded and nauseous because I had not had water that day. Before we go on stage in fitness competitions, we are deprived of water because of how it makes the muscles look, and we are being judged on our physiques.

Suddenly, everything was moving in slow motion as I started falling to the floor. One of the girls in my group was a nurse, and she recognized what was going on and helped me to the floor. I was having a stroke in the right side of my brain, which meant the left side of my body was being affected. I wasn’t able to talk at all, and my left-side limbs were in paralysis.

Medication after the first stroke

Between my first and second strokes, my cardiologist had changed my medication from carvedilol to bisoprolol, and it was one of the biggest mistakes, because I started feeling the effects of dilated cardiomyopathy and heart failure. It was really hard for me to keep up when walking because I was so exhausted. When it was time to sleep, I would have trouble lying flat at night and breathing. It felt like something was sitting on my chest, keeping me from breathing. Also, I could not keep food and beverages down without throwing them back up.

A second stroke

A few weeks before my second stroke in 2018, I interviewed for a contractor position at the Pentagon and got the job. On my second day at my new job, I woke up not feeling well and throwing up, so I ended up at urgent care.

The doctors told me I was dehydrated and needed fluids, so they hooked me up to an IV. The nurses weren’t checking on me because they were tending to other patients. I desperately needed to use the restroom, so I pressed the call button, and 15 minutes went by. They were taking forever, so I got up, disconnected the empty IV, and went to the bathroom.

While in the bathroom, I heard the nurses at the door knocking and asking if I was OK. Suddenly, I started seeing black; I had passed out on the bathroom floor. I was having another stroke not even a week after my 30th birthday.

Emergency treatment

This one was more severe than the first one in that it was a left-brain stroke, so my right-side limbs weren’t working and I couldn’t talk. The doctors had to perform a thrombectomy to remove the clot from my brain.

From what I’ve been told, the doctor came out and showed my family on an iPad what he’d done. When I woke up, my family was speaking to me and I still couldn’t speak or walk, so the doctors decided to send me to inpatient rehab.

Two strokes, 4 years apart

So, although I suffered 2 strokes, they both felt different and happened differently. One was more severe than the other, and one of them required rehab. They happened within 4 years of each other, so I thought to myself, "What’s going to happen in another 4 years?" for a long time.

But, in the end, it ended up working out for the better, because in 2020, I got the gift of a heart transplant from my donor...

Have you experienced a stroke? Share a story in the comments.